Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Last Night (sometimes it is confusing with all these time zones) I received a wonderful message from author Paul Kearney. The message is related to The Ten Thousand (pb 2008, 480 p.) [ISBN-13: 978-1844165735].

"The world of Kuf is a brash jewel swarming with all manners of races and peoples. The Assurian Empire is dominant, prestigious and thought to be invincible. However, this ancient colossus is about to be shaken to its very foundations.Ten thousand elite mercenaries of a legendary race known as the Macht are hired by an Empire exile to take the throne by force. But when their employer is killed, and they are surrounded by Empire armies, the Ten Thousand find themselves abandoned.This is the story of their fight for freedom." [Source]

I read The Ten Thousand in 2008 and left following comment on Goodreads:

"This is a tough epic fantasy story. To be honest I'm not a fan of military fantasy but the description of battle scenes are incredible realistic.The whole reading was like a movie in my brain. And I can promise you in parts an unexpected end.The book reminded my of the DRENAI series by David Gemmell.In case you don't mind realistic battle scenes, tough characters, good world description and a partially rude language (what do you expect from an average mercenary?) then give this book a go!"

I was glad when I found out that there will be two sequels.Next book will be Corvus (due to amazon.uk October 28th 2010, 416 p.) [ISBN-13: 978-1906735760].

"It is twenty-three years since a Macht army fought its way home from the heart of the Asurian Empire. The man who came to lead that army, Rictus, is now a hard-bitten mercenary captain, middle-aged and tired. He wants nothing more than to lay down his spear and become the farmer that his father was. But fate has different ideas. A young war-leader has risen to challenge the order of things in the very heartlands of the Macht. A solider of genius, he takes city after city, and reigns over them as king. What is more, he has heard of the legendary leader of The Ten Thousand.His name is Corvus, and the rumours say that he is not even fully human. He means to make himself absolute ruler of all the Macht. And he wants Rictus to help him." [Source]